Recovery after broken leg
 

My lil 3.5lb guy broke his leg jumping off the couch. He was 11 months old and I had literally just picked him up from the breeder the day before this happened. He was very malnourished and def under weight (he had an ear infection too) so I do feel that his bones were susceptible to devastating injury. I immediately took him to the vet who confirmed the worst case scenario and most costly procedure to successfully fix the break and save his tiny leg. He had to have an orthopedic specialist put tiny pins in and take a bone graft from his hip to add around the pin which would be the only chance to regenerate a callus that would form around the pin and fuse the broken bones back together. The surgery went well and after many soft cast changes and X-rays at 8 weeks and again at 12 weeks (which was yesterday) I'm glad to say that the cast is off! My concern now is that the leg has atrophied quite a bit and he is not bearing much weight on it. The vet says this is normal and as he uses it more the muscle tone will return. I'm wondering if anyone else has been through this and how long it will take before he regains full use and I'm also scared it will break again.

In my experience, they do gain that muscle back fairly quickly with normal use of the leg. It does take a while though for them to use it and sometimes they don't because they are used to not using it. If he continues to not use the leg, you might want to look into physical therapy.
Take this time while he is less active to teach him to use stairs or a ramp for getting on and off of furniture. He should be trained not to jump if you can do that.

Thanks! He's not quite able to jump up and he's been on limited activity due to the injury. I am concerned about his little bursts of energy that he gets first thing in the morning and later in the evening. He runs around like a maniac and with the splint and soft cast he has had the extra support and now that it's off I am wondering if I should order a splint that I can put on just for his high energy moments as the leg strengthens. He will have to use the leg in order to regain the strength so this would only be on while he's very active.

If they said it is healed and he is free to run and play, I would not worry about it. That's great he cannot jump up on things.

Glad your kiddo is on the mend, he sounds like he's really doing great. It will take some time for his muscle strength to come back, but it will. Good luck!

Same thing with are bella ! Healed just fine!! She now uses stairs to get up on and off of the couch no more jumping !!!

Hello! I am glad your little guy is fine and now able to run and play without the cast. But is his broken leg completely healed at the end of 12 weeks?

Last week, on June 13, Lucy, my 8 month-old female Yorkie, broke her front leg while jumping off the bed. Both radius and ulna bones were broken. I immediately took her to the vet and she had a surgery. A plate and five screws have been embedded into her broken leg, and a splint and bandage have been applied to immobilize the leg.

Our vet said that a complete healing of the broken leg may take 6 months to 1 year, even if the splint and bandage shall be removed at the end of 8 weeks in case everything goes well. For the muscular atrophy, he ensured that the muscle loss can be reversed with proper exercise.

With my Lucy, we are only at the beginning of this long healing period but I think like you that some protective support may be needed after the removal of the splint and bandage.

All the best to you and to your little guy,